The prophetic events found in The Book of Daniel and in The Revelation of John are of great interest to students of scripture, and every Christian denomination has placed their own interpretations upon them. Many have been rather sound in their explanation, while still leaving room for uncertainty. This work does not represent the views of any particular religion, and the facts may be far different than commonly considered.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Part 11:A Season and a Time

There is a third time in Daniel that proves a prophetic “time” to be a thousand years. The four beasts of Daniel 7 are understood to be the great Gentile empires that would rule in the Holy Land during the time of the Gentiles. The first three beasts were Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The fourth beast, Rome, fell in 476 AD. The Moslems came on the scene soon after, but the Moslems were not granted world dominion like the empires that came before them; however, the Lord did permit the Islamic states to rule in the Holy Land for a “season and a time.”

To understand this part of the prophecy, we must understand that Babylon was represented by the “lion,” Medo-Persia by the “bear,” Greece by the “leopard” with four heads, and Rome by a “diverse” beast with “ten horns” and “great iron teeth.” (Dan. 7:1-8, 11-12.)

In Revelation 13 we find a beast which is a composite of Daniel’s first three beasts: the lion, bear, and leopard; which is Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. Today this same geographical region is occupied by Iraq, Iran, and Syria/Lebanon. These are the modern-day counterparts of the earlier lion, bear, leopard beast kingdoms of Daniel, and which are also all Gentile Moslem nations.

One might ask, Why is the fourth beast, the Rome Empire, not mentioned along with the first three beasts? The answer to that question is that, today, Rome is Christian and not Moslem, and it does not occupy the same geographic region, nor does it have anything to do with the “abomination of desolation.”

While some of these Islamic countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.) have national autonomy, and the different Islamic sects might be at war with one another, they are all perfectly united behind their false prophet, Muhammad, and united in the spirit of antichrist. And these modern-day Islamic Gentile nations perfectly compliment biblical prophecy. Let’s now turn to Daniel 7:11-12. In doing so, notice the highlighted brackets that contain interpretive comments.

Daniel 7:11-12: “... I beheld even till the [4th] beast [Rome] was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts [the Islamic nations of the Middle East], they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives [in the Holy Land] were prolonged for a season and time.”

Now if time is 1000 years and there are four seasons per year, then a season would be about 1/4 of a time, or a thousand years. One fourth of 1000 years is 250 years. So we have:

1000 + 250 = 1250

The term “about 1/4" is used because actual seasons fluctuate depending upon the lunar cycle and weather. Realizing that a season is not an exact number and could shift a week or so either way, and the difference over hundreds of years could add up significantly, this “season and time” could fit history quite easily. Considering shifts in the seasons for 1250 years, the years considered could actually be 1260 years. If that is the case then what we have is:

This last example being the case, then we have seen three examples, from Daniel alone, of time fitting history, when time is understood to be a thousand years. Consequently, it is unrealistic to hold that prophetic times mean anything else.

What’s the implication of all this? Well, what we learned so far is that these figures, such as 1260 days, 1290 days, 42 months, time, times and a half, etc, have little to do with either the first or the last half of the Great seven-year tribulation period. They are about the Gentile Moslem nations, the Dome of the Rock, and the restoration of the Jews back to their homeland of Jerusalem. The support of these prophetic explanations span thousands of years from historic events that took place in antiquity to events that have taken place in our own lifetimes. When left up to man, that is a statistical impossibility; but not with God. So we no longer have just a theory, we have sound biblical and historically evidence supporting the theses presented.